Napoli and Pompeii - ITALY

Sometimes you travel places and your heart is saying, "Ah yes...I could live here...let's move here!"

Not so for me and Italy.

Shocking, I know. It was a delightful, beautiful, and memorable place - but not once did I have the urge to pack up and move there. I was delighted to be surrounded by friendly people, smiling faces, and a language that I semi-understood. Italy is so full of history and it was incredible to stand in places that have had history happen on them for over 2,000 years! Maybe it was just the exhaustion from traveling, maybe it was the expense, maybe it was the doubt of never being able to trust people who might take advantage of a tourist, or maybe it was the dirtiness - but I was thankful to be "just passing through".

Now that that's out of the way, let me tell you all about this wonderful trip!

We arrived in Napoli (why did it get changed to Naples? I don't know...so I'm going to call it what every one there calls it) on a very stormy Saturday night. We hauled our little suitcases through very unfamiliar metros and cobblestone road, and begin our trek to our little Airbnb.

Easter Sunday started with us getting rained on (a lot) and making our way to a "Hop On/Hop Off" bus headed to Pompeii. In Italy, a lot of historical locations are free the first Sunday of each month! Woohoo!! We were able to get in free and that was nice since we got poured on the majority of the time there.
It was an incredible experience to walk the roads of this ancient city! You could even still see the grooves in the stones from chariot wheels! INCREDIBLE!
Thankfully, the rain caused a lot of people to seek shelter while us braver tourists plodded up hill and down hill in the on-again/off-again rain. It was worth it! I'm amazed how a terrible catastrophe was able to preserve history for us to see today.

The layers of walls in this photo do not do it justice...

We had to take at least one picture together when the rain paused a moment.

We only saw about a quarter of what they have discovered of Pompeii. We had no idea it was so big. It was also interesting to discover that this was a very middle class city - no extreme wealth or pompous living. Just regular people with regular houses.

Outer wall

Chariot wheel grooves

Chariot wheel grooves! These large stones were all over the roads and were used as stepping stones to cross. Water (and sewage) ran through the streets, so everyone used these to cross.

Panorama of one of the amphitheaters in Pompeii.

Inside a bath

Ancient paint still on the walls of this bath. Red was the color of Pompeii, which you can see throughout the city and also in the museum, where a lot of things have been salvaged and are on display.

Remnants of one of the many temples

My faithful adventuring friend, Ashleigh! She put up with many stops for photos and lots of rain! And still smiled!

One of the main piazzas...in the rain

A temple (to Jupiter, I think). Sadly, these temples reminded me of the lostness of these people. Their destruction from Vesuvius (it would be directly behind this temple except for the clouds) slammed them into eternity - where they faced the wrath of a Holy God. Every good thing they had done in life paled in light of Yaweh, a God they had probably mocked.

 Since it was Easter Sunday, I was reminded that the disciples would have gone tearing down these type of roads upon the announcement of Jesus' resurrection! Can you imagine the excitement!? With everything else going on as normal around them. PRAISE GOD - HE IS RISEN INDEED!!!

This house was mostly still intact! Amazing!

Once we arrived back in Napoli, at the base of the Castel Nuovo (New Castle), the day proceeded to be beautifully sunny with dazzling blue skies!

This turned out to be one of my favorite pictures of the whole trip! Incredible detail in the archway entrance to the castle!

The gorgeous Royal Palace of Napoli, which is next to the "old" New Castle

Old history meets newer history

 We also were able to enter the National Archeological Museum for free. It was also right around the corner from our little Airbnb. There were numerous displays, including things from Pompeii. My favorite was the room with the gorgeous ceiling!

 Day one was a full one - 20,000 steps to start our trip!

The Island of Capri - ITALY

Vesuvius under clouds and sun

leaving the Port of Napoli

The Island of Capri turned out to be my favorite part of the trip. It is a gorgeous area, full of breathtaking views, lovely villas and little towns, and stunningly blue water!
The trip to Capri, on the other hand, was not all that enjoyable! The ferry was 1.5 hours long - and 90% of the ferry was seasick. Thankfully, I wasn't, but it was not all that enjoyable either way. The storm the day before had really hit hard and we were still reeling in its wake.
(We were informed that the day before, the swells had reached 6 meters)

First glimpse of Capri

You'll see the "super scary cliff road" on the mountainside. Around the corner is Anacapri.

Once we arrived (and bought motion sickness medicine), the day turned out to be beautiful!!!!!

We took a super scary bus ride along a cliff to Anacapri, where our little hotel was. My eyes were closed most of the time. Oh, and it was also under construction...what?! And I even grew up on super scary cliff roads in Peru...this was way worse! (but not worse than the trip to Pomabamba, fam!)

view from our balcony

The hotel had such a lovely view of the blue water of the Bay of Napoli, but we were honestly only there to sleep. The owner told us about a hike on the other side of the island that offered impressive views - boy, was she right!

And also, I'm very glad she told us which way to go.
It starts off hiking through gently rising streets of Capri..

 

...and then you go down a bazillion stairs! (We were breathing too hard to take pictures, so this is all I've got)

It was strenuous, but totally worth it!

Natural arch

Faraglioni rocks from above - the boats actually drive through one of the little arches in one of the big rocks

Faraglioni rocks from farther away

  

We ate dinner in Capri, watching the town wind down and start to fall asleep. It was quite a heavenly place once most of the tourists left.

Walked back to look over Capri as it fell asleep from a cliff overlook

streets of Anacapri

We headed back to Anacapri and fell asleep, with almost 20,000 steps again and at least 80 flights of stairs! That was just from the afternoon really! Well worth it!

 The second day started with a little exploring around Anacapri. 

Overlook of Capri from Villa San Michele

Villa San Michele - built by Swedish physician Axel Munthe, who was rumored to be a love-interest of Queen Victoria

Casa Rossa - built by an American Civil War colonel

 

It was another lovely day, but not as clear and captivating as the day before. When we checked out and headed back to Capri, we settled in for a boat ride around the island. WORTH IT!

 

This grotto is for the Virgin Mary because there is a stalagtite inside that looks like the Madonna

Famous house because of it's interesting architecture

Faraglioni

Grotta Verde (Green grotto)

Gorgeous water!!

Grotta Azzura (Blue Grotto) - tiny whole in the wall and very over-priced...so this is as close as we got to it

I would not have wanted to go in, but only to see what it looked like with the light glittering on the water. Google it...it's gorgeous!

Villa San Michele in Anacapri. This is where I took the overlook pictures. I wasn't kidding when I said it was on a cliff.

 

After eating our sandwiches on a park bench (we discovered just how expensive Capri was, so we opted for sack lunches), we rested up and then got settled in for our short ferry ride to the coastal town of Sorrento.

(No pictures because we slept)

This ferry ride was much better! Once we arrived to Sorrento, we had yet another hike to go on with our little suitcases before arriving at our cliff hotel. I say "cliff" because it was literally on a cliff overlooking the water on the outskirts of Sorrento.
All of the Amalfi Coast is one huge cliff...yikes.

We got some groceries and then walked back into town for a scrumptious dinner of pasta! I was in heaven, with pizza and pasta being our main dishes on this trip! Yes!

Also, the best gelato in town was at Primavera!

We watched the sun set over Sorrento on our way back and relaxed against the railing as the city lights began to flicker on. So lovely.